Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

The biggest team-up history?

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance doesn't really need a serious introduction - just take the action RPG elements of the two mega-popular X-Men Legends games and add about 20 new characters. It's not the gameplay that'll bowl anyone over (at least from what we've seen so far), but the sheer amount of Marvel-ness is staggering.

At the recent San Diego Comic-Con, three new playable heroes were revealed: The Fantastic Four's Invisible Woman and Human Torch, and Iceman of X-Men fame. We saw these characters run through a newly announced level, Murderworld, which is an elaborate, amusement park deathtrap constructed by the villain Arcade. Got all that?

Iceman is able to glide around on his classic ice slide, tossing icicles at the stage's robotic henchmen. Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, lobbed clear projectiles of telekinetic energy at requisite, nameless thugs, while the Human Torch roasted a lot more than marshmallows with his streams of flaming plasma.

Players can build a team of four from the game's swelling roster and jump into the fray alone or with up to three friends. Characters gain experience by beating the crap out of everything - the points earned are used to power-up different aspects of each fighter. We didn't get to play around with the customization function, but our money's on a tweaked X-Men Legends system.